Tonight at Mass, we got there 40 minutes before the service and we were very lucky to find four spots near the front (but not near the door, which I would have preferred). This is Leia Rose's reaction to the first song the handbell choir played: her favorite, "Ding Dong Merrily on High" as she said, "'Ding Dong Merrily on High'?!? I'm definitely going to sing THAT!!!" As I've posted before, she LOVES the "glo-o-o-o-o-o-oria."
Leia really got a kick out of a few answers to the priest's question, "Where was Jesus born." Leia Rose volunteered "Bethlehem" (as she volunteered to answer all of his questions), but then John Plachetka (a friend and fellow lector) yelled out "Pittsboro"! And Leia Rose laughed out loud and said, "Pittsboro!?! Who said Pittsboro!?! Jesus wasn't born in Pittsboro!!!" Ha!
Here is a difference between Leia Rose and Annie at their one-year-old Christmas. You can see here that Annie is joyously joining in the clapping to welcome all the visitors to Mass. When Leia Rose was one, and we were at All Saints in Florida, the parish did the same thing, and any time anyone clapped Leia Rose screamed! Leia's always been very sensitive to sounds, especially loud ones.
Annie sat there in her tiny stroller happily amused for at least forty-five minutes by this Christmas flap-book! : ) This stroller is a GODSEND at Mass. I think Annie knows that when she's in it, she has no choice but to be confined. Take her out and suddenly it's whining to get down. While I'm at it, I couldn't do without flap-books either. : ) [Just a funny aside here. After the flap-book got old, I brought out the food, of course. Little freeze dried apple bits and graham cracker bits got strewn about the floor: a normal occurrence that I'm always forced to clean up later. But this time, there was a little kid laying in the aisle the whole Mass (which, I'm pretty lenient, but even I thought that was a bit inappropriate) and as soon as we folded up the stroller to go to Communion, the little kid ran right over and ate ALL of Annie's leftover tidbits right off the floor! Ha!]
This was the most precious sight our entire Christmas Eve Mass. In the middle of the service, at a time that she, herself, chose, Leia Rose turned toward the back of the church, knelt down, folded her hands, and prayed. She told me later that she was "thanking God the Father for sending us His Son, . . . and asking Saint Nicholas to intercede and remember to bring the tiny doll in the little blue dress that she forgot to put on her list." Ha!
Since this was the children's Mass, the homily was especially geared towards them. (How refreshing!) The priest had his nieces and nephews come up and hold three wrapped gifts. One was very fancy with sparkly paper and a store-bought bow. One was wrapped in regular gift wrap with a homemade bow. One was wrapped in paper bags, held together with electrical tape, and a used/unraveled bow. He asked which one the kids would want. They all wanted the one with the sparkly paper. : ) He reminded them that sometimes the "wrapping" isn't an indication of what's inside. He asked us to think about Jesus being born in a stable and placed in a manger. What a humble way to come into the world, but the gift of God's Son was the greatest gift of all. Good ol' John 3:16. Great homily!
And what would be a Mass without some sister love?
Leia Rose got to take the offering up to the front today, and she was the very first to do so! (That was quite special to do on Christmas Eve!) Ironically, it looks like she was followed by the Ghost of Christmas Future. Ha! What the heck was this woman doing wearing black on Christmas Eve?!?
[Here let me go ahead and mention the only two negative parts of this Christmas Eve Mass. One was a comment I heard from a parent who had just received Communion, and whose child obviously asked why they were going up there, to which she replied, "It's just symbolic, honey." No, the Holy Eucharist is most certainly NOT symbolic, . . . it is the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and upon our receiving Him, we become one with Him as he requested at the Last Supper. Is it too much to ask that the Church knows the basic tenets of our Faith that bring us to the fullness of the Truth?!? Because "Peter, upon this rock you will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Okay, off my soapbox now. The next negative thing was a horrible, horrible mistake I made as a parent in regards to safety (this was a result of both my haste and my desire for a peaceful Mass). And this even with all of my worries about choking, too! Despicable! Anyway, Annie likes bracelets. Bracelets can keep Annie occupied for an hour each, so before Church I ran back inside (we were already in the car), and I threw together a pile of bracelets. Annie loved looking at them during Mass, . . . but I made the mistake of including a shell bracelet and, sure enough, right around Communion time, I heard a crrrrunnnchhhh. Annie had bitten a shell into bits, and it was all in her mouth! I panicked, remembering how it was a sharp shell piece that wreaked havoc on my grandfather's colon. I spent the early part of Communion doing the "swipe" again and again in Annie's mouth until I didn't see her "working" on anything anymore. Luckily, Annie has never been one to swallow anything other than food (not to say she isn't famous for putting anything and everything in her mouth), but I cried more than once before the next day when Annie passed a successful bowel movement with no sign of issues, promising more than one Rosary if Jesus would just save my child from this. And to compound the problem, when Annie did pass the movement with no issues, she subsequently shoved both of her legs between two crib slats, forcing the crib rail right up her crack! For goodness sake! SO, there actually was a bit of blood from abrasion, but not from a shell bit, thank the Lord. This whole thing was absolutely all my fault, and I was absolutely disgusted with myself and even further, just simply sad, incredibly sad, that I made such a poor (although accidental) decision in regards to the safety of my child! Never again! Never again!!! *sigh* Now let's try to guess what my next huge parental mistake will be, . . . but until then, let's get back to the joys of this Christmas Eve and leave my dispicable mistakes in the past. . . .
After Mass Leia Rose stopped to admire the newest addition to the Nativity: Baby Jesus! (Or as Leia Rose affectionately calls him, . . . "Baby Jee!" 
And of course, as we do every day, returning home meant the opening of the very last door of our Advent calendar! Guess who was inside?!?
And Annie reflected on all these things and treasured them in her heart. : )
And then Leia Rose was SO excited to sprinkle some "sparkly food" for the Reindeer right in our yard and driveway!!! She was going to help Santa's reindeer FLY! (Although she was a bit miffed that she wasn't sprinkling it on the roof.) : ) This is such a fabulous gift from Grandma and Grandpa each year, and so very treasured! (This year it made Leia jump up and down.)
Then I decided to take Grandma's advice again, and try a real pair of shoes on Annie to see if it would make a difference in her walking. She was quite spellbound by them, but nope. Didn't help at all. She just crawled around with them on, . . . but it sure does make sense that they would feel more stable than Robeez, . . . but I've also heard that being able to grip the floor (especially barefoot) is the best. Oh well, Annie will walk when she's ready.
Then Leia Rose put the cookies out for Santa and the apple out for Rudolph, . . .
. . . and after sucking on her first, Annie learned to sign "baby." (See video.)
Then she played with mixing bowls while Mamma made Christmas Eve Dinner: our traditional spaghetti and meatballs. And I found myself thinking that next year we could invite Oma and Papa over for Christmas Eve dinner, . . . and I, of course, wished that it could have been this year. (I usually don't like the pressure of making big meals for holidays, but spaghetti and meatballs are so very easy when everything's fresh-frozen!)
. . . and even though this is kind of a "nudy" picture to post here, it was the only one that I felt captured Leia Rose's real excitement for tomorrow. She kept saying, "I just can't wait for Christmas morning!"
Then we lit the final candle on the Advent wreath, . . .
. . . and Annie celebrated by standing for a long time again (and then flopping down of course), but she did really do well in bare feet.
At the end we tried to get Annie to blow out the candles. And even with all of her "tuba playing" and "blowing" she just wouldn't do it. : )
So Leia Rose stepped in.
And here's a new tradition that I'm so glad the Worrels shared with us (and now I have a computer advanced enough to handle it). A website called www.noradsanta.org in conjunction with Google Earth allows you to track Santa with real satellite photos, in real time! You just leave the website up the whole day, and every fifteen seconds or so, Santa really flies with his reindeer to the next area of the globe. They also have "news" footage of Santa flying by the world's most significant landmarks. Really neat! And, boy, does it get you excited! [Then I got addicted. I was spellbound by simply the general website of Google Earth which allows you to begin looking at the Earth in space, and then can zoom right in (nice and slow for a really cool effect) on a very clear satelitte picture of your house!!! We could even see our newly paved driveway and our crapemyrtle tree by the sidewalk!!! Then I couldn't stop and had to do the same for Oma, Grandma, and Great Grandma Betty (and saved them with markers).]
Tonight we added a new Christmas Tradition, and decorated our own "Night Tree" based on the fabulous book of the same name. Grandma, we just LOVE this book. Thank you! It's about a family who, every Christmas eve, goes to the woods and decorates a special tree with fruit, nuts, popcorn, and apples for all of the animals to have Christmas dinner. So we read the book, took the (small) popcorn chain off of our tree, collected some nuts and berries, . . .
. . . and went straight to work! At the end, and at Leia's insistence, we sang "O Come All ye Faithful," just like the little boy requests in the story. : )
Then Leia made Brian's special gift: a homemade ice cream that he has always wanted called, "Oops All Chunks." It's mostly just a mishmash of peanut butter cups, brownie pieces, fudge, and caramel with just a tiny bit of ice cream to hold it all together, all frozen in the freezer. : ) Brian's dream!
Then she spent a surprisingly long time designing and decorating the "lable" for the ice cream container, which we wrapped and put in the freezer for Daddy tomorrow. But this was only the beginning of a magical Christmas Eve . . .
After Mass Leia Rose stopped to admire the newest addition to the Nativity: Baby Jesus! (Or as Leia Rose affectionately calls him, . . . "Baby Jee!" 
And of course, as we do every day, returning home meant the opening of the very last door of our Advent calendar! Guess who was inside?!?
And Annie reflected on all these things and treasured them in her heart. : )
And then Leia Rose was SO excited to sprinkle some "sparkly food" for the Reindeer right in our yard and driveway!!! She was going to help Santa's reindeer FLY! (Although she was a bit miffed that she wasn't sprinkling it on the roof.) : ) This is such a fabulous gift from Grandma and Grandpa each year, and so very treasured! (This year it made Leia jump up and down.)
Then I decided to take Grandma's advice again, and try a real pair of shoes on Annie to see if it would make a difference in her walking. She was quite spellbound by them, but nope. Didn't help at all. She just crawled around with them on, . . . but it sure does make sense that they would feel more stable than Robeez, . . . but I've also heard that being able to grip the floor (especially barefoot) is the best. Oh well, Annie will walk when she's ready.
Then Leia Rose put the cookies out for Santa and the apple out for Rudolph, . . .
. . . and after sucking on her first, Annie learned to sign "baby." (See video.)
Then she played with mixing bowls while Mamma made Christmas Eve Dinner: our traditional spaghetti and meatballs. And I found myself thinking that next year we could invite Oma and Papa over for Christmas Eve dinner, . . . and I, of course, wished that it could have been this year. (I usually don't like the pressure of making big meals for holidays, but spaghetti and meatballs are so very easy when everything's fresh-frozen!)
Now, we had just come back from Christmas Eve Mass, and the girls were both in their Christmas dresses, so in honor of spaghetti sauce, . . . the clothes needed to come off of Annie at least, but Leia said she wanted to be like Annie, so . . .
. . . and even though this is kind of a "nudy" picture to post here, it was the only one that I felt captured Leia Rose's real excitement for tomorrow. She kept saying, "I just can't wait for Christmas morning!"
Then we lit the final candle on the Advent wreath, . . .
. . . and Annie celebrated by standing for a long time again (and then flopping down of course), but she did really do well in bare feet.
At the end we tried to get Annie to blow out the candles. And even with all of her "tuba playing" and "blowing" she just wouldn't do it. : )
So Leia Rose stepped in.
And here's a new tradition that I'm so glad the Worrels shared with us (and now I have a computer advanced enough to handle it). A website called www.noradsanta.org in conjunction with Google Earth allows you to track Santa with real satellite photos, in real time! You just leave the website up the whole day, and every fifteen seconds or so, Santa really flies with his reindeer to the next area of the globe. They also have "news" footage of Santa flying by the world's most significant landmarks. Really neat! And, boy, does it get you excited! [Then I got addicted. I was spellbound by simply the general website of Google Earth which allows you to begin looking at the Earth in space, and then can zoom right in (nice and slow for a really cool effect) on a very clear satelitte picture of your house!!! We could even see our newly paved driveway and our crapemyrtle tree by the sidewalk!!! Then I couldn't stop and had to do the same for Oma, Grandma, and Great Grandma Betty (and saved them with markers).]
Tonight we added a new Christmas Tradition, and decorated our own "Night Tree" based on the fabulous book of the same name. Grandma, we just LOVE this book. Thank you! It's about a family who, every Christmas eve, goes to the woods and decorates a special tree with fruit, nuts, popcorn, and apples for all of the animals to have Christmas dinner. So we read the book, took the (small) popcorn chain off of our tree, collected some nuts and berries, . . .
. . . and went straight to work! At the end, and at Leia's insistence, we sang "O Come All ye Faithful," just like the little boy requests in the story. : )
Then Leia made Brian's special gift: a homemade ice cream that he has always wanted called, "Oops All Chunks." It's mostly just a mishmash of peanut butter cups, brownie pieces, fudge, and caramel with just a tiny bit of ice cream to hold it all together, all frozen in the freezer. : ) Brian's dream!
Then she spent a surprisingly long time designing and decorating the "lable" for the ice cream container, which we wrapped and put in the freezer for Daddy tomorrow. But this was only the beginning of a magical Christmas Eve . . .
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